Kirov Saga: Darkest Hour: Altered States - Volume II (Kirov Series) by John Schettler Read Free Book Online Page B

the
smoky red horizon, barely seeing the growing shadow of another ship on the sea.
It had been reported earlier by the air units, and now was making its prominent
appearance on the horizon. At that very moment Admiral Tovey was sending up his
battle ensign and remarking that it bore a lock of Nelson’s hair. Seconds later
Lindemann knew that his battle was evolving to something more than he expected.
He saw the bright flash of gunfire from the shadow on the horizon, heard the
low booming peal soon after.
    That will be HMS Invincible ,
he thought, perhaps the best ship the British have. He could see the high arc
of the shells catching the sunlight, a small spotting salvo to test the range,
but he knew this ship would soon follow with a full broadside if these shots
were close.
    Now his mind raced on. An attack
on Graf Zeppelin from an impossible range… Could the British have
another battlegroup to the north that he did not know about?
    “Send to Böhmer,” he said quickly.
“Ask if he has sighted any enemy ships to the north of our position. That
rocket had to come from somewhere. If the British are behind us…” He said
nothing further, but the concern was obvious in his voice.
     
    * * *
     
    The missiles leapt up from
the forward deck of battlecruiser Kirov , the hatches snapping open and
the sibilant hiss of the declining jets orienting them to the correct angle of
fire. Then the roar of the main rocket engines ignited, and the deadly lances
were on their way. One by one the S-400 Triumf missiles rose into the
sky, accelerating rapidly and scoring the ruddy sky with their long white tails
that seemed almost luminescent in the midnight sun.
    They formed a great smoky rainbow
in the sky, arcing up, their tails bright with fire, the noise of their haste a
roaring howl that seemed to shake the air itself. They were a weapon that could
not have even been conceived in the minds of any man of that day, capable of
finding and hitting a supersonic target as much as 400 kilometers away, and
doing so with near pinpoint accuracy. And they could reach the mind numbing
speed of just over 4000 meters per second, which amounted to 14,400 KPH!
    Aboard the battleship Bismarck ,
every man on the bridge was staring at the sky. There came a lull in the
gunfire, and he knew that the British crews must be equally spellbound. There
were three, then five missiles clawing through the sky like shooting stars,
high up, and then descending like meteors, bright with fire to explode on the
heedless formation of Stuka dive bombers that was fast approaching the
scene of the battle. One by one they exploded, then they saw the flaming
wreckage of aircraft falling from the sky… one by one…
    Lindemann was astounded by what
he saw, the inner voice of the skald chanting the demonic verse from the Eddas…
     
    “The
hot stars down from heaven are whirled;
Fierce grows the steam, and the life-feeding flame,
Till fire leaps high about heaven itself.”
     
    Till fire leaps high… What in the
name of heaven was happening? His eyes followed the long arcing trails through
the sky, tracing back towards the smoky red horizon to their point of origin.
There, he thought. Whatever blighted Gneisenau and struck at Graf
Zeppelin was there. He could feel the sinister presence of something dark
and unseen beyond that horizon, a fateful nemesis that lurked at the edge of
history itself, looming, brooding, a hidden menace on the high seas that was
wholly unaccountable.
    This is not possible, he thought. Not possible!
    Then something jarred him to
action, the harried worry snapping at him from all directions like the snarling
teeth of a wolf pack. It was as if he acted on pure reflex, sensing a danger so
profound here that his only recourse, the only sane thing to do, was to step
back, to turn, to get his ships as far from that unseen danger as he could
until he could assess what was happening.
    At that moment one of the fiery
streaks in the sky swerved and dove,